Charles Moncke was a
London blacksmith; according to legend he invented the
monkey wrench. A difficulty with this theory is that the British call a monkey wrench a
spanner. In 1932-33, the
Boston Transcript traced the invention to 1856, crediting it to a Yankee named Monk, employed by the firm of Bemis and Call in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Knowledge drawn from Willard R. Espy, "O Thou Improper, Thou Uncommon Noun"
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